Matthew 28:1-8
Let’s continue to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” After 32 days of Jesus’ Passion, we now have 18 days of His Resurrection! Glory!!
“…He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. (v. 7b) I’ve always been confused by this announcement from the angel that Jesus would meet them in Galilee. However, from my memory most of the Gospel accounts of His appearances are in or near Jerusalem. Yes, He met them in Galilee, but that was later (or so I thought). Comments…?
The women at the tomb: So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy… (v. 8) I can easily understand their “great joy”, but understanding their “fear” requires some concept juggling. When we think of fear, we think of being afraid. But the Bible often speaks of “the fear of the Lord” in a positive sense, as in “…is the beginning of wisdom.” I found a Pope Francis quote: “The fear of the Lord, the gift of the Holy Spirit, doesn’t mean being afraid of God, since we know that God is our Father that always loves and forgives us,…[It] is no servile fear, but rather a joyful awareness of God’s grandeur and a grateful realization that only in Him do our hearts find true peace.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_God, my apologies for the Wikipedia source!) That same source also refers to the fear of God as “…a specific sense of respect, awe, and submission to a deity.” I like all of those together – gratefulness, grandeur, respect, awe, submission. I can picture the women running / fast walking to the gathering of the disciples, chatting back and forth, joy and wonder in their hearts. My thoughts go back to the Annunciation: “For nothing will be impossible with God!” (Luke 1:37) Again, GLORY!!
Slava Bohu!
With regard to whether “fear” means “fear” or whether it means some warm, soft and cuddly “respect”, consider Matthew 10:28. I do not think it is healthy to redefine words to our liking.